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Trump leads, Bush climbs in new SC GOP poll

New York businessman Donald Trump continues to lead the way among South Carolina Republicans, a new poll released Sunday reports.

The poll of likely voters conducted for the Augusta Chronicle shows Trump receiving nearly 32 percent of support by South Carolina Republicans, followed by Texas senator Ted Cruz with nearly 18 percent.

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush, endorsed by South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham the same day the poll was conducted, finished third with 13 percent, followed by Florida senator Marco Rubio (11 percent) and Dr. Ben Carson (9 percent). None of the other candidates received more than four percent.

When respondents to the poll conducted by Opinion Savvy were limited to the top five candidates, the results remain largely the same, with the exception of Rubio passing Bush for third.

Likely voters were also questioned about the GOP debate held the night before the poll in North Charleston. Roughly 60 percent of those polled said they watched the Fox Business broadcast, and of those, a plurality (37 percent) said Trump won the debate, followed by Cruz (23 percent) and Rubio (12 percent). More people said Bush (26.5 percent) lost the debate than anyone else.

The poll has a 3.7 percent margin of error.

After taking the recent poll into consideration, the folks at fivethirtyeight.com are forecasting Trump currently has a 49 percent chance of winning the South Carolina primary. Their forecast says Cruz currently has the second-best chance to win the Palmetto State at 18 percent, followed by Rubio (14 percent) and Bush (11 percent). None of the other candidates have more than a two percent chance of winning in the Palmetto State, according to fivethirtyeight.